WordBanks Online

Collins WordBanks Online is an online corpus service offering you the chance to tap into the unique resources of the Collins Word Web, on which the highly successful range of Collins dictionaries is based.

Once you have purchased a subscription, you will receive an email containing your login details and instructions on how to access the service.

If you have purchased one of our institutional products, your account will allow a maximum number of users to access the service simultaneously: invaluable for the classroom. On request, we can also arrange access by IP range: this will mean your users no longer need to enter their username and password.

What is a corpus?

A corpus is a collection of samples of language which are then used for analysis of words, meanings, grammar and usage. Collins Word Web consists of many corpora which are carefully designed to reflect a balanced snapshot of how language is used today.

Collins corpora are constantly updated with new data from a wide variety of sources such as newspapers, magazines, websites, journals, books, television and radio. International, national and local publications are included to capture a broad range of subject matter and style.

Our corpora are used in the creation of all Collins dictionaries, ensuring that the language in our dictionaries is real and current: as it is used and spoken every day.

What languages are available?

The English corpus contains 550 million words from a wide range of texts from various sources, both written and spoken, and accounts for no less than 8 varieties of English. The majority of sources in the corpus date from between 2001 and 2005 making it one of the most current corpora available for subscription.

Foreign language corpora are currently in development and will be available in the near future.

With Collins Wordbanks Online you can:

Access authentic examples of vocabulary, word usage and grammar

Carry out in-depth linguistic analyses for your research thesis or dissertation